At Maarinniitty

A herd of cows draws attention.
We are at the edge of a pasture in Maarinniitty, watching cows and their calves.
They start moving past us, into the shade of the trees.

When we settle down to draw the skyline on the paper, a bug appears onto someone’s paper.
As the teacher is not there, I go to talk to the child in question and we wonder about the bug together.
Who might it be? Is it a mosquito? How delicate the feet are.

Another child helps the bug climb on a stick and takes it “to watch cows”.
The bug clings to the stick persistently.
I wonder if it feels unsafe or just good, as it does not fly away.

The children start telling stories to me, an unfamiliar researcher-adult.
When bugs arrive at the assemblage in that situation, a lot of stories and memories arise that they want to share. Bugs on the stone, bugs at the cabin, bugs at home, lovely ladybugs, building houses for the bugs.

It did matter how I viewed the bugs.
When I paid curious and polite attention to them, the children did the same.
How would they have reacted to the bugs had I been afraid of them or killed them?